"Some people say life is the thing, but I prefer reading"
- Logan Pearsall Smith

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Sunday Poetry - Oliver Goldsmith

I've just finished reading The Painted Veil by W Somerset Maugham & this poem is quoted at a crucial moment. It's An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog by Oliver Goldsmith. I loved the novel & I'll be reviewing it in a couple of days.

Good people all, of every sort,Give ear unto my song;And if you find it wondrous short,It cannot hold you long.

In Islington there was a manOf whom the world might say,That still a godly race he ran—Whene'er he went to pray.

A kind and gentle heart he had,To comfort friends and foes;The naked every day he clad—When he put on his clothes.

And in that town a dog was found,As many dogs there be,Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound,And curs of low degree.

This dog and man at first were friends;But when a pique began,The dog, to gain some private ends,Went mad, and bit the man.

Around from all the neighbouring streetsThe wond'ring neighbours ran,And swore the dog had lost its witsTo bite so good a man.

The wound it seemed both sore and sadTo every Christian eye;And while they swore the dog was mad,They swore the man would die.

But soon a wonder came to lightThat showed the rogues they lied,—The man recovered of the bite,The dog it was that died!